Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #131

8 Tips For Recovering From GM Burn-Out:

GM Burn-Out Tips Part II

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SENT BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY With Compliments

From: Johnn Four, http://www.roleplayingtips.com
johnn@roleplayingtips.com

CONTENTS:
--> A Brief Word From Johnn

--> This Week's Tips Summarized:

1. Keep Introducing New Ideas
2. Change Something Radical In The Game
3. Campaign Downtime
4. Maximize Re-Use And Familiarity
5. Take A Break
6. Get Adventures & Ideas From Other Sources
7. Reintroduce Spark By Using Lists
8. Improvise

--> Readers' Tips Of The Week:

1. Idea Source: Story Starters Book Series
From: Larry S.
2. Another Name Inspiration Tip
From: Amy Brown
3. The Golden Buddha
From: Some Stupid Spammer
4. Figure Case Ideas
From: Sakura
5. General Notes For Call Of Cthulhu GMing
From: Logan H.

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A BRIEF WORD FROM JOHNN

GM Burn-Out Tips: Supplemental Issue #9 Free For The Taking

-----------------------------------------------------------
This week Andrew gives us 8 excellent tips on GM burn-out. I
received many reader tips and suggestions as well, and I've
learned that there are two different kinds of burn-out.

The first is writer's block. Andrew's article deals well

with this problem. The second type is being sick or tired of
the game. You just ate an entire box of Oreo double-stuff
cookies and don't want to hear the words "creamy filling"
ever again.

I've put everyone's tips, which happen to deal with both

kinds of burn-out, in a freebie supplemental issue in case
Andrew's great tips don't do the trick for you.
You can get the supplemental issue (32Kb) by sending a blank
email to my autoresponder:

gm-burnout@roleplayingtips.com
mailto:gm-burnout@roleplayingtips.com

Contest Winners Not Yet Determined

----------------------------------
Sorry, but I haven't heard back from the publisher who the
winners are from Issue #129's contest yet. I suspect that
the Origins Convention gobbled up their week. As soon as I
hear back from them I'll email the winners and put an
announcement in the zine.

Do It Yourself Flying in D&D

----------------------------
I've posted a cool article by Simon Woodside about flying
and levitation in D&D. Get your calculators out!
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/articles/levitate_and_fly.php

Cheers,

Johnn Four
johnn@roleplayingtips.com

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8 TIPS FOR RECOVERING FROM GM BURN-OUT:

GM BURN-OUT TIPS PART II

A Guest Article By Andrew McLaren

Mail feedback to: valkin@wghs.co.za

or johnn@roleplayingtips.com

See http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue130.html for Part I.

1. Keep Introducing New Ideas

=============================
This may sound like a contradiction. You've realised that
you're burned-out and now you're told to introduce new
ideas! What new ideas?!
Many GMs envisage a few core scenes or story arcs when they
are planning the campaign. This planning probably takes
place before the players even create their characters, but
when those ideas are used a GM should have new ones ready
to go.

I suggest that throughout the life of your campaign you

continue to make little notes of ideas. As you are driving
your car or taking out the trash, keep one eye open for
ideas for adventures or story hooks, even if they won't be
immediately usable. Keep a few scrap pieces of paper handy
in your campaign notes and make a list of them. Gradually
you will be able to build a reasonable list of ideas, and
many of them will last more than one game session.

When stuck for an idea, turn to your sheet of paper and

glance over the ones listed. Even if you don't want to use
one of those ideas right away, a long term campaign can
benefit from introducing clues or NPCs that will be used in
later story arcs.

2. Change Something Radical In The Game

=======================================
An excellent idea which has already been listed in Issue 97
- "6 Tips for Starting and Planning a Campaign". I'll
paraphrase it here using a slant directed towards campaigns
that are already running.

Change something significant in the world. Something that is

noticeable by the players, but not enough for it to feel
like a whole new campaign. Here are some suggestions:

* Type, goals and plans of villain or enemy

* Campaign setting terrain
* The victims, employer, or story catalyst
* PC equipment
* Rewards, treasure, magic items
* NPCs, relationships
* Nature of missions, jobs, quests, or adventures
* Technology

For example:
* The cliche: The PCs find their way to a machine / magical
trap that teleports them to a previously unexplored area.
They must find their way home, or struggle against new
enemies in this new region.

* The cliche with twist: The master villain finds a machine

or magical trap that sucks him to another plane, but
replaces him with something even worse!

* A change in the economy: An act of the gods causes all

non-holy worked metal to crumble to dust.

* A new enemy: The kingdom is invaded by a powerful new enemy.

Old adversaries (the PCs and the villain?) must now fight
together.
3. Campaign Downtime
====================
Another way to renew interest is to force downtime in the
campaign. If the PCs have to spend a period (be it a winter,
a year or even ten years) settling down, interest can be
wonderfully renewed. Downtime is particularly useful in
high-level campaigns because the PCs often have the wealth
necessary to build homes, castles, craft magic equipment,
etc.

Downtime such as this is a great opportunity for GMs to work

whole new story arcs into the campaign. Perhaps a local
noble wants a PC to marry his daughter? Or perhaps
scientists (or wizards) have discovered a revolutionary way
of doing things? Of course, just because the PCs are having
downtime, does not mean the villains are doing the same!

Downtime allows you a great deal of freedom for introducing

new plots and villains. A lot of ideas for future adventures
can come from just sitting down and asking yourself, "What
would happen if a year passed?"

4. Maximize Re-Use And Familiarity

==================================
By the time the PCs reach high level, they have probably
travelled far and wide. The places they visited were
probably created when you first were inspired at the
beginning of the campaign, and might therefore be
particularly imaginative! Set up the circumstances to get
the players back there!

This allows you to revisit old, favourite NPCs and locations

and gives the campaign a sense of history. You can also ask
yourself "What has happened since the last time the PCs were
here?", and jot down some new story arc ideas!

5. Take A Break
===============
If you usually play every week, then skip it for a week.
Take a break! Be very definite about getting back together
again to continue the campaign though, and don't let the
break be too long. Use the time during the break to do
something different and unrelated to the campaign. Maybe
plan a video evening with your players instead.

6. Get Adventures & Ideas From Other Sources

============================================
There are a number of websites that offer downloadable
resources. They range from encounter ideas, to whole
adventures and even whole campaigns. Have a look at some of
them and find one that you could introduce. You may find
that the ideas presented will add new spice to your game!

http://www.dndadventure.com and http://www.rpg-archive.com

have adventures and story hooks for a number of settings
including science fiction and traditional fantasy.

If you are playing in a fantasy setting, make use of

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/hook/Welcome.asp# to randomly
generate entire adventure ideas!

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm contains a list of a

variety of basic plot ideas.

Don't think of these resources as a way for other people to

do your work for you! Treat such resources and pools of
ideas which can be used to get your own creative juices
flowing again!

7. Reintroduce Spark By Using Lists

===================================
You may find that your NPCs are repetitive and boring, or
that you have been caught off your guard with the need to
create a quick personality for the next innkeeper. Prepare
some tables beforehand which can be used quickly to add
special characteristics to NPCs. List features such as
"walks with limp", "eyepatch", "hates men", "fidgets",
"German accent" on a piece of paper that you can refer to
during play. Players respond to such characteristics with
renewed interest in the NPC.

8.Improvise
===========
Remember that you're the GM. If you dislike a rule or the
way the system handles something, discuss it with your PCs
and change it. If you have a cool idea that this system just
doesn't allow you to do (like magical items that grow in
power as the PC does), implement your own mechanic.

Conclusion
==========
The key to your campaign surviving the lethargy that comes
with burn-out is to reduce the amount of work you expect of
yourself. Make use of the energy you have already invested
in the campaign by re-using older locations and NPCs!
Reintroduce spark to the game by changing something radical
or by just allowing game time to pass.

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READERS' TIPS OF THE WEEK

1. Idea Source: Story Starters Book Series

From: Larry S.
==========================================
In the Getty Museum here in Los Angeles at the museum's gift
store I found a book called "Story Starters on the Middle
Ages" by Steve and Jean Henrich. It is a great source of
information & ideas for adventures & NPCs!

It is a book for children on how to write a story set in the

Middle Ages. All you need is in this book: Facts on the
Middle Ages, "Glue Words", Vocabulary (i.e. Colors: a full
page of different colors, and Sound and Movement: a full
page of different words to describe sounds and movement) and
more!

There are three hundred ways to say "said" (Cooed, Cussed,

Insisted, Panted, Quipped, Teased), "Additional details for
Characterization" (a chapter that gives character types,
appearance, eyes, hair & all other features), a "Character
Recipe" for making a Wizard, Knight, Dragon, Queen/Princess,
or Serf character.

Also included are "Setting Recipes" for Ruins, Forests,

Market Places, and Castles. It even has plot devices and a
set of "Plot Cards" for ideas on what could happen next in
the plot ("while hiding behind a curtain in the castle a
character overhears the secret name of an enemy").

The Story Starter series is from Henrich Enterprises and

they have a full series of these books: the Middle Ages,
Civil War/Old West, Present Day, The Future, Ancient Egypt,
Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, The Renaissance, Ancient
Japan, Ancient China, Ancient Africa and Aztecs, Mayas, and
Inca's!

The ISBN # for Middle Ages is 0-926473-00-X and could be

found at stores that sell educational and instructional
material for teachers.

2. Another Name Inspiration Tip

From: Amy Brown
http://www.heatherwind.com
===================================
Hi Johnn!

Just a quick suggestion for generating character (both PC

and NPC) names in a pinch. Head for the kitchen!
A friend of ours during the character creation phase of the
game acknowledged that she hated trying to come up with
creative names for her PCs and didn't want to take the time
to research name lists. So she would go to her kitchen
cupboard, pull out a food or cleaning product at random
(something with an ingredients list) and choose a name based
on the ingredients in its list. This technique is how our
party came to be travelling with characters named Malto
Dextrin the Ranger, and Plebsin the Barbarian. Obviously,
some names may come off more comedic than others depending
on the ingredients, and you don't have to use the exact name
as-is. But using this trick can at the very least help with
an off-the-cuff campaign, or spur on the creative thought
processes toward a more descriptive and appropriate name.

Hope this helps!

3. The Golden Buddha

From: Some Stupid Spammer
============================
[Comment from Johnn: believe it or not, I received this cool
story as a spam. I've deleted the get-rich-quick-link and
left the story intact. Perhaps it'll inspire a few burnt-out
GMs. :]

In 1957, a monastery in Thailand was being relocated and a

group of monks was put in charge of moving a giant clay
Buddha. In the midst of the move one of the monks noticed a
crack in the Buddha. Concerned about damaging the idol, the
monks decided to wait for a day before continuing with their
task. When night came, one of the monks came to check on the
giant statue. He shined his flashlight over the entire
Buddha. When he reached the crack he saw something reflected
back at him. The monk, his curiosity aroused, got a hammer
and a chisel and began chipping away at the clay Buddha. As
he knocked off piece after piece of clay, the Buddha got
brighter and brighter. After hours of work, the monk looked
up in amazement to see standing before him a huge solid-gold
Buddha.

Many historians believe the Buddha had been covered with

clay by Thai monks several hundred years earlier before an
attack by the Burmese army. They covered the Buddha to keep
it from being stolen. In the attack all the monks were
killed, so it wasn't until 1957, when the monks were moving
the giant statue, that the great treasure was discovered.

Like the Buddha, our outer shell protects us from the world:
our real treasure is hidden within. We human beings
unconsciously hide our inner gold under a layer of clay. All
we need to do to uncover our gold is to have the courage to
chip away at our outer shell, piece by piece.

4. Figure Case Ideas

From: Sakura
====================
Hi, I read your article about being a mobile DM
[ http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue19.html ].
I was a travelling DM for years, and here are some solutions
I have seen/used for carrying miniatures:

1) If the figs have metal bases, use magnetic sheeting (from

a craft store, much of it is peel and stick), in bottom of a
box and the minis will stick to it. Or, attach the sheeting
to the miniatures and use a metal bottomed/lined box.

If magnet on the minis method is used, miniatures can be

stored standing on a metal baking sheet under a bed, on a
shelf, etc, and they do not slide around, bang together, or
fall around, and can have a piece of material laid over to
prevent dust gathering. (I found that rough handling still
dislodged them from the box, so long travel or rough travel
is bad).

2) Soft foam cushioning from a fabric store, sold in various

depths. Get enough to fill a box (of whatever size), just
tall enough for the tallest miniature, plus a little. Cut
holes so that miniatures can stand on the bottom of the box,
but have foam all the way around (pointy bits that stick out
are no problem, just slice the foam a bit). If the miniature
will fall against the lid, simply make a plug of the extra
form parts that were cut-out, and place above the miniature.
(Works great, but is space ineffective sometimes, and if you
man-handle them into the foam, they will bend.)

3) Get bubble wrap (office supply/packaging stores). Cut

rectangles a little wider than the miniature, and 2x the
height. Fold it over, tape the edges closed, leaving the top
open. Slide mini in, place in carrying box. (Little
envelopes sometimes are hard to pack and the wrong sized
envelope is a pain, I always carried a little extra bubble
wrap).

All of these methods work well. Depending on the situation

and the distance I used to carry the minis around in a
smallish coffee can with the bubble wrap for a long time,
and they pack for long trips/moving this way as well. But
it was harder to "instantly" unpack them.

5. General Notes For Call Of Cthulhu GMing

From: Logan H.
==========================================
[Comment from Johnn: Woohoo! Tips for another game system
besides the fantasy/D&D genre which I heap on my gaming
plate. Tips like the ones below for any game systems are
always welcome!]

WAY too many frigging modules start out "Your

<friend/brother/cousin/etc> has <died/disappeared/gone
insane> and you need to go to <some scarey spot> to find out
what is going on and <flee in terror/die/go insane>.

That's sad and yes, that's the way Lovecraft wrote. Pretty
bad for a game of COC. IMO, stuff is a LOT less scary if
you don't give a crap about your character and have to make
a new one every time. No continuity, no lasting friendships
with people you care about, etc.

Here is an example of how to make a lasting relationship

with an NPC. Let's say you are a private detective and have
a secretary.

Scenario 1: Your secretary goes insane, dies, whatever.

You have to go find out what happened. Bit of a bummer but
after the module, you have to get a new secretary. Result
in the characters mind "Secretaries are expendable".

Scenario 2: Your secretary's BROTHER goes insane, dies,

whatever. Better. You still have to live with the secretary.
If you go kill the monster and it doesn't help the brother,
the secretary isn't going to be really happy and may think
you are making up all of the monster stuff. You now have her
harboring ill feelings towards the player and that can
create some entertaining scenes. Or, the players can get
slick and deal with the monster, then cure the guy, then
convince the secretary that he was made insane by a woman
leaving him, or whatever.

The important thing is the secretary doesn't die. Then you

can have other adventures with them as a helpful backdrop.
Let's say for example that the player is in a gunfight. You
want the secretary to help.

Wrong way: The secretary yanks a pistol out from under the
desk, stands up and begins shooting the hell out of the bad
guys! Yes, you have hired Rambo. This is usually done by
GMs who have insecurity problems or want to play NPCs as
though they were their personal characters. Bad, bad, bad.

Right way: Click goes the PC's gun - out of bullets! "TJ!"
hisses the secretary. You look over, see her yank a pistol
out from under the desk she is taking cover behind and she
slides it to you! Bang, bang, bang, goes the happy PC.

The PCs would have to be dense not to keep this secretary

employed. If the gunfight was really fierce and if that
scene went on BEFORE the secretary needed help for her
brother, how much more motivated will the players be?

DANGER - do not make the NPC good at everything. Limit

the scope. There is a danger in having them good at too
many things - always there with whatever is needed. It is
OK to maybe have her lend a bobby pin if the PCs need to
try to pick a lock but she shouldn't carry extra clips of
ammo, disguises, etc. A little goes a long way with NPCs.

Players will also be much easier to keep on the right side

of things with NPCs who don't really do anything but are
just scenery. Like the guy at the newsstand that says "Hey
- hows it going TJ? Heard we are going to have some rain
soon, eh? Need a paper?" If you as a GM remember to use
these guys regularly they can be used (very infrequently!)
for a couple of different things:
* Positive reinforcement: "Hey TJ! Heard that you captured
that evil guy who was robbing people! Way to go! Our city
sure could use a few more like you!"

* Negative reinforcement: "Oh - yeah - hey TJ. Um. Yeah.

Need a paper? Yeah. Heard...um...someone who looked a bit
like you was wanted for questioning by the cops - but that's
not you! You're just a regular Joe right?"

* Creepy stuff: (don't use this one often!) When the PC is

insane have a bit of a build up and then the PC's notice
blood is dripping off of the papers - (this can also make
the statement that the press causes more than prevents
murderers, etc). Have the character snap out of it after
enough of a weird scene (couple paragraphs worth of talking
about it) and have everything back to normal, except that
the newspaper guy looks a bit worried "Hey Mr. TJ - you
don't look so good - you wanna glass of water or sumthin'?
This tells the PC "I've lost too many sanity points! Oh no!"

Hell of a lot better than saying "You go insane for awhile"

or "You go into catatonic shock".

Have the PC make a sanity roll the first time he shoots a

human. Give him d6 SAN loss. People who can murder other
people (even in self defense) without agonizing over it at
all are considered 'insane'.

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That's it for this week's issue.

Have more fun at every game!

Johnn Four
mailto:johnn@roleplayingtips.com

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